Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The Majority/Minority Debate

As the submission deadlines for my young charges' project work comes to a close, it is interesting to see the attitude changes that one can see. You can see the 'kanchiong' kings and queens, the ones who had been slacking for the past few months, suddenly taking things into their own hands (and sometimes others) and can be seen to be laboriously working on touching up and finishing their projects. The smaller minority will be those who have laboured intensely for the past months or so, and is seemingly more relaxed and confident in their handiwork, since a lot of thought and sweat have gone into working on their coursework earlier. But what is worst of them all, are those who are seemingly in a state of constant delusion, about their own abilities, and sadly, are really in a dire need of some form of an intellectual and motivational dose of reality, laden with a little cyanide perhaps, to perhaps deaden them even further. Seriously when all things have been said and done, there is perhaps only so much that a teacher like myself can do to save, or to try to save, EVERYONE, because more often than not, we CAN'T.

I mean what can one do when there seems to be remotely NO hint of interest or for that matter, effort, to even have a little pride in their own handiwork. I don't know...seriously the things that goes through inside the minds of such students of mine! What kind of wake-up call will suffice to enable them to at least wake up to the reality that is hitting them, and at least still enable them to get them back crawling , at the very least, and then make them move again! I simply AM dumbfounded at the psychological and emotional absence that these students have about themselves!

But then again, seriously when the dust have settled down, we can only do so much to help them, no matter how hard we tried. I think, at least for myself, I have done whatever that I possibly can to at least save the majority from drowning, whilst losing those minorities, no matter how hard is it for me to accept!

And so life goes on....

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